Small Business Programs

The Historically Underutilized Business Zones (HUBZone) program helps small businesses in urban and rural communities gain preferential access to federal procurement opportunities. The HUBZone Contracting program was enacted into law as part of the Small Business Reauthorization Act of 1997. The program falls under the auspices of the U.S. Small Business Administration. The program encourages economic development in historically underutilized business zones – “HUBZones” – through the establishment of preferences. The program’s benefits for HUBZone-certified companies include:

A 3% goal of every Federal Agencies budget as well as every Federal Prime Contractor’s contracts.

HUBZone set asides and sole source contracting.

10% price evaluation preference in full and open contract competitions.

That equates to approximately twelve billion annually with the Federal Government directly and eighty billion annually with Federal Primes direct. The HUBZone 3% goal achievement last year was 1.82% for Fed direct and 1.2% for Federal Prime direct, and trending down year over year.

SBA’s HUBZone program is in line with the efforts of both the Administration and Congress to promote economic development and employment growth in distressed areas by providing access to more federal contracting opportunities

The Department of General Services (DGS) Procurement Division (PD) sets state procurement policies and provides purchasing services. It delegates purchasing authority; certifies small and/or disabled veteran businesses to do business with the state and provides innovative purchasing methods that save taxpayers’ dollars, integrating quality solutions to meet customers’ needs.

The DGS PD, Office of Small Business and DVBE Services (OSDS) is the state’s certifying agency that administers the small business and DVBE certification programs. It is the State of California’s policy to promote small business participation in its procurement and contracting processes by requiring all State agencies, departments, boards and commissions to achieve a goal of 25 percent small business participation in state procurements and contracts.

The State of California purchases a wide variety of goods and services ranging from A to Z. Annual purchases total almost $10 billion. The Procurement Division (PD) is the central purchasing authority for all state departments, agencies, institutions, community colleges, technical institutes and city or local boards of education.